Some people in West Kelowna are worried about a proposed development for the Casa Loma area.
More than 35 single family houses could be built on the slope at the end of Benedick Road.
“We don’t believe it will be safe as it’s being presented at this stage, so we’re very concerned about that,” local resident Rodney Wright said.
One of his main concerns is that the Benedick development is happening near a known slide area.
“We’re very concerned the land will slip in this area, which will obviously threaten the houses down below, and in particular, Casa Loma Resort,” Wright said.
At the bottom of the hill and at the mercy of upslope development, Casa Loma Resort is also worried about flooding from above if natural underground streams are disturbed by digging during construction.
“We have had in the past, on at least two occasions, land slippage into our parking lot from the upland property,” Casa Loma Resort’s general manager Heather Schaub said.
“The district advises us that at this time there will be no building on that lot, but they’re still asking to rezone it to RU2, which means at some point it could happen,” she added.
In the wake of a year of extreme flooding throughout the Okanagan — some of it suspected to be caused by uphill development — Schaub is worried the situation will get worse.
“We’ve seen slides at Black Mountain, Peachland, along the highway has been closed several times, KVR trail, and right here in Kalamoir Park there was a slide this year. It’s a major concern,” she said.
But Konnect Development said it plans to stay away from the slide area, at least for now.
“We’re not close to proposing any sort of development there in the near future. We just want to get this subdivision done to provide some housing for the folks of West Kelowna,” Grant Trask, Konnect Development’s vice president, said.
“Our hope is that through appropriate storm water management, the development can capture some of that water from the subdivision at Lakeview Heights,” Trask said.
He’s hoping that would help mitigate and stabilize the part of the site at risk for slippage.
“And if it’s not feasible to do that at all, it will be left natural,” Trask added.
Another concern voiced by residents is that the access road into the new development is too narrow.
“Benedick has always been a dead-end street: very narrow, narrower than most streets, and the idea is to keep it narrow but now this road will service another 36 houses connecting up to Benedick,” Wright said.
The city recently held a public hearing and said it has heard residents’ concerns.
“We are in discussions with the applicant right now,” Brent Magnan, West Kelowna’s planning manager, said. “It’s going to take them some time to digest and work through some of the concerns the public brought forward.”
To get the go-ahead, the project still needs pass through two more readings at city council.
Trask said its development application has been in front of West Kelowna’s city council for some time, and it’s hoping to start construction as early as next summer if it can get the project approved and zoning and development permits in place.
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